The US supreme court yesterday upheld an appeal by prosecutors against a court's ruling that Scotsman Kenny Richey's conviction for murder was unsafe and should be quashed.

Richey, 41, who moved to America when he was 18, had hoped to face a retrial for the 1986 murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins in Ohio. But the supreme court ordered the lower court to reconsider its judgment.

"Nobody was expecting this, we just can't believe it," said Richey's wife, Karen, who lives in Cambuslang, Glasgow. "It's very, very bad for Kenny. The campaign will go on, but we are very upset."